A collection of reviews of films from off the beaten path; a travel guide for those who love the cinematic world and want more than the mainstream releases.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Slamdance ’17: Hotel Coolgardie

The
Denver City Hotel makes your local Hooters look cosmopolitan. Coolgardie is
located smack dab in the middle of Australia’s Goldfield region, so naturally
many of the pub’s patrons are miners. You would expect it to be a ruckus place,
but the rustic blokiness reaches highly problematic levels in Pete Gleeson’s
documentary, Hotel Coolgardie, which screens
during the 2017 Slamdance Film Festival.

After
losing their money in Bali, Lina and Steph managed to make their way to
first-world Australia. Signing on with an employment agency that specializes in
short term provincial assignments, they agree to sign on as barmaids at the
Denver City. There will not be a lot of distractions to spend the wages on in
Coolgardie, so they ought to be able to save money relatively rapidly. However,
they are not prepared for the inhospitable treatment they receive from the
owner and they are rather taken aback by some of the customers. One in
particular could be the live-action version of Barney from Moe’s Tavern on The Simpson’s. Of course, he has a hard
crush on Lina.

It
is safe to say the two Finns do not fit in well. Frankly, it really seems to be
everyone’s fault. They never make much of an effort, but nobody really helps
them either. Pretty much all they get from the locals are reprimands and
drunken propositions. Regardless, there is no excuse for being a hostile
employer.

Not
surprisingly, the Goldfields tourism bureau has had a conniption fit over
Gleeson’s film, but it is hard to imagine how any of his scenes could be taken
out of context. Nor does he portray Coolgardie as monolithically troglodytic.
The Finns rather take a shine to an old-timer known as “Canman,” who tragically
died shortly after filming wrapped—and at least of the good old boys really
seems like a decent chap, who they should have treated better.

Hotel
takes a dark turn in the third act that
technically has nothing to do with sexism or exploitation, but makes Coolgardie
like an even less desirable place to visit. Basically, Gleeson’s film is a
stone-cold reality check to horny summer sex comedies. It also lands on the
media spectrum around where proper documentaries start to approach reality television.
That also means it is never boring. Recommended for the voyeuristic, Hotel Coolgardie screens this Thursday
(1/26) at Treasure Mountain Inn, as part of this year’s Slamdance.